Votre ser’teur M. N.
We must not omit to mention Chronograms. These are verses which contain within them the date of the composition. In 1885 I built a boathouse by a lake in my grounds. A friend wrote the following chronogram for it, which I had painted, and affixed to the house:
Thy breaD upon the Waters Cast
In CertaIn trust to fInd.
sInCe Well thou know’st God’s eye doth Mark,
Where fIshes’ eyes are bLind.
This gives the date.
D = 500 + W= 510 + C = 610 + I = 611
+ C = 711 + I = 712 + I = 713 + I = 714
+ C = 814 + W = 824 + M = 1824
+ W = 1834 + I = 1835 + L = 1885.
The W represents two V’s, i.e. 10.
A very curious one was written by Charles de Bovelle: we adapt and explain it:—
| The heads of a mouse and five cats | M.CCCCC | |
| Add also the tail of a bull | L | |
| Item, the four legs of a rat | IIII | |
| And you have my date in full | M.CCCCCL.IIII | |
| (1554.) | ||
It is now high time that we show the reader how to find the clue to a cypher. And as illustration is always better than precept, we shall exemplify from our own experience. With permission, too, we shall drop the plural for the singular.